TI·4

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	polibi spuris
Reading in original script:
Object:	TI·4 Giubiasco (plate)
Position:	outside, wall
Orientation:	0°
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	Latin script
Letter height:	1.1–1.8 cm0.433 in <br />0.709 in <br />
Number of letters:	12
Number of words:	2
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	Augustan [from object]
Date of inscription:	second half of 1st c. AD [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	Latin
Meaning:	'of Polibios Spuris' (?)
Alternative sigla:	Morandi 2004: 5
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 522

Images

Cup TI·4 Giubiasco with inscription TI·4 from Crivelli 1977

Plate TI·4 Giubiasco with inscription TI·4

First part of inscription TI·4

Second part of inscription TI·4

Commentary

First published in Morandi 2004. Examined for LexLep on 18^th August 2021.

Images in Ulrich 1914: Taf. LXXXVIa.6-6a (photos), Crivelli 1977: tav. 1 (drawing only of spuris = Morandi 1999: 165, fig. 5).

The two sequences (length 4.1 and 5 cm, respectively) are inscribed by the same hand in well legible letters at ca. 7 cm distance from each other below the rim. The scratches are traced with white paint. The alphabet is Latin, only lambda is deviant, having a form otherwise known from the archaic Greek alphabet of Argos (Morandi 2004) and the Venetic alphabet of the Cadore. The language of the inscription, accordingly, is also a mix of Greek and Latin. The Greek name πολυβιος (or Latinised polybius) appears with a Latin genitive ending; for the spelling cf. the Campanian fabricant Publius Cipius Polybius, whose cognomen is sometimes spelled POLIBI (gen.) on fabrication stamps (P·CIPI·POLIBI·F(ECIT), see Kunow 1985: 222–224). spuris is less clear; Morandi 1999: 164 f. considers it to be a personal name, "senza alcun dubbio un italico". It is certainly hardly Celtic, but reminiscent of the common Latin cognomen spurius and Etruscan names (ET² I: 281). Assuming that spuris agrees with polibi, it must be inflected like a Latin consonant or i-stem spuris, though the motivation for the separate application of the two sequences is not evident. How exactly they relate to each other is unclear.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Crivelli 1977	Aldo Crivelli, "La necropoli di Giubiasco", Rivista Archeologica dell'Antica Provincia e Diocesi di Como 159 (1977), 5–98.
ET²	Gerhard Meiser, Etruskische Texte. Editio minor, auf Grundlage der Erstausgabe von †Helmut Rix neu bearbeitet in Zusammenarbeit mit Valentina Belfiore und Sindy Kluge. Teil 1: Einleitung, Konkordanz, Indizes, Teil 2: Texte, 2nd, revised edition [= Studien zur historisch-vergleichenden Sprachwissenschaft 4], Hamburg: Baar 2014.